“THE Nigerian Army, conscious of its commitment to its constitutional duties especially as regards to the defence of the territorial integrity of our dear nation….” Get it right: either as regards the defence or with regard to the defence—not ‘as regards to’.
THE NATION, SATURDAY, and THE NATION ON SUNDAY of July 4 and July 5 respectively take over from THE GUARDIAN: “JTF alerts public on (to) new antics of kidnappers” In addition: for headline purposes, why not eliminate ‘of’ this way: JTF alerts public to kidnappers’ new antics
“Most of those who have worked with Idris said his unique characteristic is (was) his daily ability to ‘clear his table of any issue before closing at work.”
“He must put his foot down to arrest indiscipline in his party and clean up the Augean stable (stables) of corruption in our nation and the economy.”
“…in the rain or under (in) the scorching sun for a rigour that is totally avoidable.”
“…challenges up and coming (up-and-coming) actors”
“Wada’s hide-and-seek game” Ripples: delete ‘game’ as it is encompassed.in the idiomatic expression.
“Bank related (Bank-related) frauds and forgeries have been on the rise in recent times with over N23billion losses recorded in the last one year.”
“NFF sacks Super Eagles (Eagles’) coach, Keshi”
Finally from THE NATION family: “Agent: Alampasu not club less (clubless)”
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First come first serve, Practice makes perfection.
Beaten once shy twice. By P.M AKUJOBI (08028308118) from his pamphlet entitled “Corrected 420 COMMON MISTAKES (page 21).Corrected by me: First come, first served. Practice makes perfect. Once bitten, twice shy.
WRONG: Practice makes perfect.
CORRECT: Practice makes perfection. By PRINCE DR. K. JOLAYEMI, from his pamphlet entitled EDUCATE YOUR MIND WITH 525 COMMON MISTAKES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE (page 9) 08033357825.
These pamphleteers and others wrote all the rubbish, which I’ve highlighted over the years in another column. I’ve books on English proverbs and Idioms. How can any reasonable person attribute the errors to me? It is carrying eccentricity too far. It is insanity – the very height of madness to even do that. I don’t assert what I don’t know. Thanks!
For writing last Sunday. “The next grammatical crises are from The Guardian Editorial and Opinion Page of the edition of July 7, 2015”, Ebere has been under the Grammar Hammer charged with “the crime of logorrhea”!
The background story, CRISIS: “Crisis” is widely used by journalists, working for such employers as the B.B.C., Daily Express and New York Times, for any kind of difficult situation – e.g. “the oil crisis”; “the water crisis”; “the coal crisis”. It is also the normal Communist word for the political and economic situation in any non – socialist country.
“The crisis of the capitalist world in its economic aspects” (Comment, 29.11.75). the difference between Communist and non – Communist journalists is simply that for the first the capitalist world, everywhere and in all its activities, is in crisis all the time, but for the second only about half the times”, so asserts Kenneth Hudson in his book, THE DICTIONARY OF DISEASED ENGLISH (page 52).
Nigeria was crisis–free between 1960 and 1963. Since 1964, Nigeria has been in crises. The crisis could have come to a head this year but for divine providence. Yet still, a crisis was manufactured in the National Assembly (NASS) by people who want to reap where they did not sew!
In the instant context, Ebere could have used “grammatical infractionsinfringements or breches”. Period! (BAYO OGUNTUNASE 08056180046)
COLUMNIST’S RESPONSE: According to one of my dictionaries, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, there is nothing wrong with the usage of “crises” as faulted above. From the reference book comes this elucidation: “A situation in which there are a lot of (sic) problems that must be dealt with quickly so that the situation does not get worse or more dangerous
Emergency: The country now faces an economic crisis. The Prime Minister was criticised for the way in which he handled the crisis. The current debt crisis a major political crisis I was relieved that we had averted yet another financial crisis. Oil companies were heavily criticised when they made large profits during the oil crisis of the 1970s. The car industry is now in crisis. He doesn’t seem to be very good at crisis management.” It may interest Baba Oguntuanse to note that the abuse misuse of the English language in Nigeria has reached a crisis point that must be addressed without resort to semantics and noun restrictions because of our peculiar sociolinguistic environment where we talk of “beer parlour” instead of “pub”!
FOR MUSLIM READERS: May the blessings of this season of rebirth remain with you all now and in the years ahead.
IN the late 80’s I wrote an article in The Guardian and National Concord titled “Grammatical Flaws” stressing inter alia the distinction between “its” and “it’s” stating that the former is a possessive adjective/pronoun based on the role. Mr. Oguntunase tøok me up on this claiming he had.consulted this and that textbook on this simple elementary grammar and would not agree with me. Other writers soon took up the gauntlet supporting my claim but he stood his ground becoming cantankerous. Amazing, a simple three-letter word causing him to embark on such an extensive research! Three decades after history is repeating itself.incöntrovertibly. Oguntunase is some character. Regards. (Komolafe G. O., Ilesa).
